Like nightingale you know not the groans and wails, you lack living soul in your set up frail. This garden which gives the rose plucking right, you felt no pricks alas! For the thorns fright.

Come forward and learn the self seeing art, learn the hard task and sufferings of heart. If you wish clear vision of God the Great, learn to see the self in a vivid state. (Khwesh paechidan; Literal meanings are self-wrapping or self writhing or self coiling but in Iqbal’s own terminology it means self seeing. The meaning of ‘Khwesh paechidan’ or ‘Bakhud paechidan’ should not be mixed up with ‘Paech-o-tab’.)

Give up the habit to weep on fate; face the hard times with a courage great. Dont you know that the water of a brook, when falls on stone, it gives a lovely look.

A gull said to shaver, nice witty thing, you cannot exist with the silken wing. With a fondness great if you call ‘Ya Hoo’, you can catch hawk’s head with a loving coo. (Some people say that a pigeon says ‘Ya Hoo’ in every coo. Hence Iqbal is speaking in passages. His pigeon is a virtuous man. In America a pigeon is also called a gull.)

You had fallen then from a godly place, to courts of mean men you sought a close face. Thou art a hawk, to self you cannot get, until you are caught in thy self’s own net. Second Version (if Fatadi is verb transitive): Thou dropped me first from the godly place, later to the lowered you showed Thy face. Thou art a Hawk Great for us you then care, when you are trapped in thy own Snare*. * By this Iqbal means to say that one cannot he a complete Muslim until the total obedience of God becomes his second nature. In that phase he moulds himself into the pattern of obedience. When he acts on the commandments of God he feels as if it is his own bent of mind, or as if it is a matter of daily routine to him, and no one has thrust upon him that duty. It makes a complete change in meanings if Fatadi is used as verb transitive. The first version is however more nearer to truth, as this chapter is addressed to mankind. Since God is houseless, He cannot be contained in any place, neither on earth nor on the Heavens. But He comes in the heart of a Momin, in the heart of a faithful being. When the God responds to the Love calls of a Momin, He comes into his heart. Since The God chose the heart of a Momin for a place to Him, He is caught Himself in that snare. Since the God made this snare by His Own Hands and He likes to be caught in that snare, under extreme pangs of love of a Momin, it will be more appropriate to read line 3 and 4 (of 2nd version) as: Thou art a Hawk Great for us you cared then, when you were caught in thy own snare and den.)

I hail that day when he turns to self’s bold; this is the faqr’s essence which makes him gold. The lasting life thus in certitude lies, a thought when you follow the self then dies*. * When you express your own opinion or view in the exegesis of Quran or Hadith it means that you are (unconsciously or inadvertantly) under an impression that the God, and the Prophet, were unable to explain those verses, inspite of all the eloquence we owe to the words of Allah in the Holy Quran. There a man claims to be a great scholar than God Himself. As such if you prefer the views of the biggest scholar on earth over the clear meaning of Holy Quran, then your faith, gnosis and then the certitude in God and the Prophet is not complete The views of different experts, may be the Holiest men on earth, create different castes and creeds in any religion. This is unthinkable and unbelievable that a particular view or a particular opinion which we know is due to the scholarly knowledge of any one individual. The Holy Books are a common legacy of entire mankind and every faithful has a right to know what is written in the lines. As such no body has got a right to misinterpret any meanings, to mislead others. It is within the privilege of a 100% true faithful to understand the meanings of the Holy Books with his own intellect and academic knowledge because every body is directly responsible to God, who knows what is hidden in our hearts. It is better to teach the meanings of a Book, unnecessary commentries should be avoided. The scholars do not require any comrnentry. The commentous are written only for those people whose knowledge of the text is very poor.)

Like me you are too wrapped in a veil, you turn to self when that good day I hail my fear of living takes, to Kufr’s camp hark! Book’s knowledge leads to Kufr’s pitch dark. (Kufr: Unbelief, darkness; pitch as pitch black, pitch blind, pitch dark. Underlying thought: Since you and me both are unaware of our ego, due to many veils between man and God, which the man has placed before his eyes, these veils must be removed to attain the place of certitude. These veils are unnecessary barriers between a man and the reality.)

A camel once said a nice word to foal, he’s lucky who knows to play his own role. Learn from me a knack of desert tramps, to take thy own load from camps to camps. (Second Version: Learn from me the desert rambling knack; to take thy own load on thy own back.)